A cluster refers to a collection of servers, typically referred to as nodes, that communicate with each other to make a set of services highly available to clients. A cluster architecture may be used with large-scale applications including, for example, database servers, messaging servers, email applications, collaboration platforms, and so forth. Virtual machines are also often deployed across the nodes of a cluster. Many enterprises use virtual machines to help process data and provide services.
It is important that the cluster be backed up so that the cluster can be recovered in cases of data corruption, equipment failure, disasters, catastrophes, and so forth. A problem with restoring the cluster, however, is the inability to balance the restoration across the cluster. For example, when restoring a set of virtual machines from backup to the cluster, there is very little visibility into exactly which node of the cluster will be hosting the virtual machines after the restoration is complete.
In some cases, the node to which the virtual machines are restored to does not have sufficient resources to support all the restored virtual machines. For example, the node may already be hosting a large number of existing virtual machines, may lack the appropriate amount of memory resources, compute resources, network resources, and so forth that may be required to properly run all of the virtual machines. As a result, there can be a resource crunch or over-utilization of resources of the node. This can lead to a degradation in performance, increased response times, and so forth. There is a need for improved systems and techniques for restoring to a cluster.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions. EMC, Data Domain, Data Domain Restorer, and Data Domain Boost are trademarks of Dell EMC.